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4^^ ■ 

A MEMOIR 



OF 



HORACE BINNEY, Jr. 



READ AT A MEETING OF THE 



UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA, 



June i, 1870, 



BY 



CHARLES J. STILLE. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

HENRY B. ASHMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 

Nos. 1 102 AND 1 1 04 Sansom Street. 



A MEMOIR 



OP 



HORACE BINNEY, Jr. 



READ AT A MEETING OF THE 



UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA, 



June i, 1870, 



BY 



CHARLES J. STILLE. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

HENRY B. ASHMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 

Nos. iioa AND 1 104 Sansom Street. 



■ BOSS'S 



The following Memoir of Mr. Binney, with the exception of 
those portions relating to his connexion with the Union League, was 
read May 7, 1870, before the American Philosophical Society. By 
the permission of that Society it was again read (with the additions 
above referred to) before the members of The Union League and 
their friends, June i, 1870. y 



/^ 



•/^V 



MEMOIR 



It is not often that the judgment of a man's life and 
character by the world agrees with that of his intimate 
friends. By the world, success in life is too often 
measured by results which strike most forcibly the 
popular imagination ; — it means a large fortune, a bril- 
liant professional reputation, opportunities eagerly 
sought and adroitly taken advantage of for gaining 
prominent public positions. To his friends on the 
other hand, a man may be most endeared and best re- 
membered by qualities of which the world knows noth- 
ing, or at best knows them only as they are seen in the 
perfect symmetry of his life. Happy is the memory 
of him who, dying, forces the world to forsake for once 
the false standards by which it commonly judges char- 
acter, and extorts from it an involuntary homage to 
what is real and true in human life. I think that the 
career of our late friend and colleague, Mr. Binney, is 
an illustration of this rare coincidence between the 
opinion of the world and that of a man's inner circle of 
friends. Here was a man who won none of the great 
prizes of life as the world counts them, who was not a 
successful politician, who never aspired to high official 
position, or gained great professional reputation, who 
had none of the arts which please the multitude, who 
was simply a man of warm sympathies, and generous 
culture, striving to do his duty in the fear of God in 



4 

that station of life in which his lot has been cast, a 
simple-hearted, modest Christian gentleman, — and yet 
when he dies, a voice comes to us made up of many 
voices, proclaiming that his conception of life was a 
just one, and that such a life is worthy of our affec- 
tionate commemoration. 

Horace Binney, Junior, was born in Philadelphia, 
on the 2 1 St of January, 1809. He was the eldest son 
of the Honorable Horace Binney, and one of the 
many blessings of his life was, that during the whole 
of it he felt himself supported by the wise counsel, the 
sure guidance, and the lofty example of such a Father. 
The influence of Fathers upon their children, is I fear, 
declining in this age and country, but in this case the 
deep yet discriminating affection of the Father for the 
son, and the profound filial reverence of that son 
towards the Father, forms a picture as attractive and 
suggestive, as unhappily in our experience it is rare. 
Such a relationship between two such men continued 
for threescore years could not be without an important 
influence on both. By the younger, at least, it was 
felt as a power which he never referred to except to 
speak of it with gratitude, as having happily controlled 
the whole course of his life. 

As a boy, Mr. Binney was of a serious and thought- 
ful turn. His love of study, and his exquisite moral 
sense were developed simultaneously, and they soon 
became blended in that perfect harmony which formed 
the great charm of his character in his maturer years. 
He was somewhat shy and retiring in his disposition, 
and possibly a constitution never very robust may have 
unfitted him for those boyish sports for the keenest 



enjoyment of which high animal spirits are essential. 
His studies began in the school of Mr. James Ross, 
and under the training of that most accomplished 
teacher he gained great proficiency in the Greek and 
Latin Classics. In this school, among his friends 
and associates, were the late Professor Henry Reed, 
Charles Chauncey, a young man of great promise, cut 
off in early manhood, and the Rev. Dr. Hare — and 
they remained his friends until death divided them. 
"He was remarkable among his school-mates" says 
the last survivor of these companions, *' for the quali- 
ties which distinguished him in after life. He was to 
an unusual degree just, regular and industrious. I 
have no remembrance of his having ever missed a 
lesson or incurred a censure." 

Mr. Binney entered the Freshman class in Yale 
College, in the autumn of 1824, in his sixteenth year. 
Although he was with one exception, the youngest 
member of a class nearly one hundred strong, his at- 
tainments in the classics were far beyond those required 
by the College rules for admission. This proficiency 
gave him of course a great advantage at the start, and 
was no doubt one cause of his high standing in his 
class. I well remember years afterwards at Yale a tra- 
dition, that Mr. Binney's class was one of the most 
brilliant which had ever passed through that College, 
and in this class he carried off the highest honors. 
Those who know what is meant at Yale by that dis- 
tinction, can best estimate not merely the attainments, 
but the force of character required in a boy of twenty 
years of age to reach it. His friends at College, like 
his friends at school, seem to have been chosen from 
those whose subsequent career proves his early dis- 



criminating judgment of character. I need mention 
only the names of two of our most eminent colleagues, 
Mr. Justice Strong, and Dr. Barnard, President of 
Columbia College, who were his class-mates, and his 
life-long friends, in illustration of what I have said. 

Perhaps however, the most powerful influence in 
moulding his character at this period of his life, came 
from a source outside the College. During the four 
years of his residence there, not a week passed on some 
day of which a letter was not written by the Father to 
the son, or by the son to the Father. Such a corres- 
pondence could never have been maintained without 
that profound mutual confidence in each other which 
was a striking characteristic of both. It had too the in- 
estimable advantage of making the Father and the son 
better known to each other, and one of its results was, 
that the Father who had been the most careful and 
judicious of parents while his boy was at College, re- 
garded him from the time he left to the day of his 
death as a younger brother rather than a son. 

It is not to be supposed that because Mr. Binney 
attained the highest college honors, he had no time or 
inclination for studies beyond the ordinary curriculum. 
Although a firm believer to the last, in the simply dis- 
ciplinary value of a thorough study of the Classics and 
the Mathematics, he never had the folly to suppose 
that four of the most precious years of his life were to 
be given merely to training his intellect, without stor- 
ing his mind with knowledge, or cultivating his taste. 
H is study of languages, and especially of Greek, led him 
into a far wider field than that embraced by an accurate 
knowledge of their grammar and their idioms. His 
proficiency was such that he was able to do that which 



7 

tew young men at College ever do, to regard the 
ancient languages principally as the vehicles of the 
literature of the people who spoke them. He was 
thus led to study in the best way the civilization of the 
free states of antiquity. No one had a finer appre- 
ciation of what modern culture owes to Greek models. 
He himself was thoroughly imbued with their spirit, 
and their influence was conspicuous in liberalising his 
views, and directing his studies all through life. 

There can be, I suppose, little doubt that Mr, Bin- 
ney's strong religious nature inclined him after he left 
College to adopt as a profession, that of the Sacred 
Ministry, That he acted wisely in not following this 
inclination, no one who now looks back upon his career 
can doubt, Mr, Binney's life as a layman was a living 
epistle of all virtues, a daily exhibition in the midst of 
no ordinary trials and duties, of purity, goodness, faith 
and truth, and it is not to be doubted that the silent 
influence of such a life upon those around him was as 
powerful and as healthful as if he had been the most 
brilliant professional teacher of those Divine truths, the 
fruits of which were so conspicuous in his daily walk and 
conversation. There is no warrant for the statement 
which has been made, that hewished to devote himself to 
the Ministry, and that he was persuaded by his Father 
to study Law, His Father, no doubt wished and recom- 
mendea it, but his intervention was confined to point- 
ing out the priceless value of the life of a truly religious 
layman in the world, and more particularly that among 
such religious men in England, were to be found seve- 
ral of her most eminent Judges and Lawyers. No one. 
Indeed, who knows how solemn a thing duty always 
was with Mr. BInney, and how absolute was the confi- 



8 

dence which his Father reposed in him, can doubt that 
the decision when arrived at was the result of his own 
free and deliberate choice. 

Mr. Binney's career as a Lawyer was not a striking 
or brilliant one. He studied his Profession, as he did 
everything he undertook, thoroughly and conscien- 
tiously, and his well-trained mind, and habits of in- 
dustry made him a master of the great principles of the 
science. But he was never intended for a professional 
athlete. He had none of the abundant self-assertion, 
the eager watching of opportunity for advancement, or 
the disposition to regard litigation as a game, the chief 
interest of which lies in the chances of success of those 
who conduct it, which are so characteristic of one class 
of Lawyers, while he had not those extraordinary gifts 
which make the fame of the truly great Lawyer, like 
that of the great Historian, one of the rarest of intel- 
lectual distinctions. He was however without doubt, 
one of those who do most to secure for the Profession 
the confidence of the Public. His nature abhorred all 
the arts of low cunning and chicanery, or rather with a 
certain noble simplicity, he seemed scarcely av/are of 
their existence, and he lived in a moral atmosphere so 
pure, that it inspired every one who approached him 
with implicit trust and confidence. Hence in that 
large class of cases (much larger than is commonly 
supposed,) in which the moral qualities of the man are 
quite as important to the interests of the client as the 
professional skill of the lawyer, he found abundant oc- 
cupation. He was eminently a safe counsellor, accu- 
rate and thorough, and perfect master of any case which 
had been confided to him. I have been assured by one 
of the most eminent living Jurists, that there are at 



least two cases in our Reports in which Mr. Binney's 
printed arguments have always seemed to him models 
of Professional skill, showing on his part perfect fami- 
liarity with some of the most intricate and difficult 
questions of the Law. 

Mr. Binney's extreme modesty^ and his utter aver- 
sion to display or ostentation of any kind, confined his 
reputation as a scholar chiefly within the limits of 
those who knew him well. To his friends he seemed 
always a man of genuine scholarly instincts, loving the 
familiar intercourse of the wise, the true, and the good 
of all ages, as a means of enriching and invigorating his 
own nature. His memory abounded with passages 
from his favorite I^atin authors, and he studied Greek 
literature, and especially the Greek Scriptures in a 
thoroughly critical spirit. I have often heard him 
refer to certain expressions in the original, the pe- 
culiar significance of which he thought had been lost 
in the translation. He talked often of St. Paul as 
one of the finest specimens of Greek culture, and noth- 
ing could be more instructive than to listen to his an- 
alysis of the speech before Agrippa, and of its points 
of resemblance to the most celebrated productions of 
the Greek orators. He referred frequently to the con- 
nexion between Greek culture, and the spread of Chris- 
tianity, and to the providential combination for that 
purpose at the time of its Advent, of the Jewish or 
Monotheistic idea of the Deity, of the Greek concep- 
tion of the dignity of man, and of the universal Roman 
sway. He was fond of the study of history, but its chief 
interest to him was as a record of the dealings of God 
with his creatures, and of the influence of the Church 
as a divinely organized institution in the world. His 



lO 

familiarity with ancient literature and ancient history 
never tempted him as it has done so many scholars in 
our day, to make it the basis of a destructive criticism 
which would leave us no Divine revelation, and no per- 
sonal God. If he abstained, it was not from indiffer- 
ence, nor from a fear of the consequences, but because 
no man ever had a clearer intellectual perception than 
himself, of the boundaries between the domain of faith 
and that of reason. 

The classical spirit with which Mr. Binney was im- 
bued, formed the basis of all his canons of taste and 
criticism. He had learned at least one thing from the 
Greeks which so many are apt to forget, and that was 
the value of simplicity and truth in style. He had a 
great dislike for everything that was exaggerated, abnor- 
mal, or simply pretentious. Like Plato, he sought the 
beautiful by striving to find the true, and nny picture 
in which truth and reality were sacrificed to effect failed 
to make the intended impression upon him. He thought 
that the ancient Poets and Dramatists pourtrayed most 
truly human emotions and passions, because their de- 
scriptions were at least consistent and natural, and 
because they did not present to us as real human beings, 
those literary monsters of modern times, — '* the names 
linked with one virtue and a thousand crimes." He 
had the keenest perception of what was of real value, 
either in the form or in the substance of the writings of 
others. He especially disliked that mode of present- 
ing or discussing a subject which was simply rhetorical, 
passionate or sensational. Such a style offended equally 
his moral, and his aesthetic principles. It was not true 
because it was one-sided, aud there was no beauty to 
him in anything which was not true. I have always 



1 1 

regarded Mr. Binney as one of the best illustrations I 
have ever met with, of the practical value of classical 
studies, and I may mention here that during his long ser- 
vice as a Trustee of the Protestant Episcopal Academy, 
— extending over a period of nearly forty years, — and 
as a Trustee of the University, he was unceasing in his 
efforts to uphold their dignity, and in insisting upon 
their value in every scheme of liberal culture.^ 

It is not to be inferred from what has been said, that 
Mr. Binney led the life of a secluded student, for he 
felt the deepest interest in the great movements which 
were going on around him, yet it is also true that he 
had no ambition to occupy a prominent position in 
public life. The arts of the politician were abhorrent 
to every instinct of his nature, and he felt, as we all do, 
that by these arts success is chiefly gained in a public 
career. He was one of that class, who, observing 
quietly the current of human affairs, are not disposed 

' The following anecdote will illustrate Mr. Binney 's familiarity with 
Greek style. 

Mr. Richard Henry Wilde, once a member of Congress from Georgia, 
and an accomplished scholar, had written some beautiful verses beginning, 
" My life is like the summer rose, &c.," which being published in the news- 
papers, became widely known. Some time after, Mr. Wilde was surprised 
to find in a Georgia newspaper, a Greek Ode purporting to have been 
written by Alcasus, an early Eolian poet of somewhat obscure fame, and it 
was claimed that Mr. Wilde's verses were simply a translation of this Ode, 
the ideas in both being almost identical. As Mr. Wilde had never heard 
of AlcKus, he was much puzzled to account for this resemblance of the 
two poems. At the suggestion of a friend, the Greek Ode was sent to 
Mr. Binney for examination and criticism. He at once, much to the re- 
lief of Mr. Wilde pronounced it a forgery, pointing out wherein its style 
differed from that of classical Greek. It turned out afterwards that the 
Ode in question had been written by an Oxford scholar on a wager, that no 
one in that University was sufficiently familiar with the style of the early 
Greek poets to detect the counterfeit. To carry out this scheme, he had 
translated Mr. Wilde's verses into Greek. 



I 2 



to niiike vain efforts to check its course until it threat- 
ens to sap the foundations of society, and those who 
have hitherto guided it lie panic-striken and helpless. 
Such men form the true reserve force of a nation ; 
never seen, almost never thought of in days when all is 
smooth and prosperous, they are the only guides who 
are trusted in the crisis of danger. Mr. Binney was a 
typical man of this class. He was forced into public 
life when earnest men sought to purify our Municipal 
Government, orwhen the suppression of riot and blood- 
shed in his native city, required him to assume the 
singularly uncongenial duties of a Captain of a Vol- 
unteer Company. 

In his religious opinions, Mr. Binney was a con- 
servative Churchman. He had deeply studied the 
organization and claims of the Christian Church, and 
was strongly convinced of the rightfulness of its au- 
thority as a Divine agency in this world. With a most 
devout and earnest spirit he strove through this means 
to uphold a high standard of Christian life and duty. 
He revered the memory of the Saints and Martyrs of 
that Church. The virtues which distinguished them — 
child-like faith, humility, self denial, and an earnest 
love of the weak and the lowly — were those which 
found in him the fullest recognition and sympathy. 
His moral instincts and his mental culture were here 
also in perfect harmony, and his enthusiasm for Saintly 
George Herbert, and his familiarity with Keble's Chris- 
tian Year, which he could repeat from the beginning to 
end, were due, not merely to his appreciation of the 
literary merits of those Poets, but also to their praise 
of those virtues which it had been his life-long concern 
to cultivate. 



Mr. Binney's peculiar views concerning the Church 
and its functions, modified his opinions upon many 
important questions, especially in regard to those great 
movements of moral reform by which the present age 
is so strongly characterized. With an ardent desire 
that men should grow purer and happier, his sober and 
serious judgment made him very slow in adopting any 
one of the plausible schemes by which it was proposed 
to accomplish that desirable object. He was no hu- 
manitarian. He had very little hope for the future of 
the race outside the influence of Christian faith and 
duty. He saw too much of the disturbing passions of 
mankind to believe that true progress could be made 
in any other way. In all his work for his fellow-men 
he was guided by a principle far deeper and more 
enduring than a vague sentiment of philanthropy, 
and that was, obedience to a duty divinely com- 
manded. Hence his zeal had all the characteristics 
of duty, — courage, constancy and self-denial — and none 
of the weaknesses attendant upon mere passionate 
impulse. 

How completely Mr. Binney's whole life was the 
outgrowth of this principle of duty was shown by his 
conduct during the war. He had no favorite theories 
to establish, no passions to gratify by the subjugation 
of the Southern people. Moreover, he was one of 
those who, while he deplored most deeply the evils of 
slavery, felt himself bound by the force of positive law 
to abstain from interfering with it where it existed. 
Yet when a gigantic conspiracy to overturn the govern- 
ment of the country revealed itself, he regarded it with 
almost judicial calmness, and he prepared to resist it, 
as he would have performed any other high duty with 



all the manly earnestness of his nature. Shocked and 
indignant, no doubt, he was : 

" Neque enim slluisse licebat, 
Cum passes, moerens indigna, Columbia crines 
Et pectus lacerum et stillantia lumina monstrat." 

Yet he never lost his balance : he went about his 
work with a sober enthusiasm which was deep-rooted 
in conscientious conviction. He never doubted or 
wavered, nor weakly desponded, but keeping his eye 
steadily on the end in view, he gave himself and all 
that he had to the support of the government. Noth- 
ing was more suggestive than the sight of this quiet, 
undemonstrative gentleman, in active sympathy with 
the country in danger. Of all the many schemes de- 
vised here to give popular aid to the authorities during 
the war, he was a most zealous promoter. He was one 
of the founders of the Union League of this City, an 
agency in the successful prosecution of the war, the 
value of which I do not think it easy to over-estimate. 
He was never unduly excited by our successes, or de- 
pressed by our reverses, and I do not think that I ever 
saw him more moved during the war, than when on a 
public occasion here, he expressed his satisfaction that 
he was at last permitted to give free play to his con- 
victions concerning slavery, and to aid with a clear con- 
science in its destruction. 

Mr. Binney's later years were so identified with the 
history of the Union League that any account of his 
life would be very incomplete which did not present at 
least a sketch of the motives which induced him to take 
so prominent a part in its organization. I have often 
talked with him on the peculiar relations which he bore 
to the movement out of which it grew, and I am con- 



'5 

fident that he never looked back upon any act of his 
life with a more absolute conviction that he had well 
and faithfully performed a duty, than when he recalled 
the aid he had given in founding this Institution. I 
propose to give some of the grounds on which this 
conviction rested. 

Mr. Binney, like every thoughtful person, was fully 
satisfied that the only real difficulty in suppressing the 
rebellion was to be found in the possibility of a divided 
sentiment at the North. He knew that without the hope 
of such a division of opinion as would paralyze our 
efforts, no rebellion would have been possible. Previous 
to the outbreak of hostilities, as we all remember, the 
opinion that the Government would be unable from this 
cause to maintain its supremacy, was shared alike by 
those who were friendly and those who were hostile to 
it. Most unexpectedly, for reasons not necessary to 
recapitulate here, a wonderful unanimity was shown by 
all classes and all parties in support of the war during 
the first year of its continuance. Then began that 
period of trial and despondency, which, as it has come 
upon every country engaged in prolonged war, so it 
came upon us. The extravagant hopes and headlong 
confidence with which all nations, especially those with 
a popular form of government, plunge into a war for a 
cause which is dear to them, are chilled if the end is 
not speedily reached. Distrust and disgust succeed 
to the early enthusiasm, and people soon turn from 
blaming the conduct of the war to seriously questioning 
the policy of carrying it on at all. This is the critical 
period of all wars waged for a principle, and the manner 
in which it is met tests the courage and the constancy 
of those who have embarked in it. Such a crisis oc- 



i6 

curred in this country in the autumn of 1862. The 
disasters in the Peninsula, the widely differing opinions 
in regard to the capacity of the Commander of one of 
our armies, the necessity for more troops and greater 
sacrifices, the Emancipation Proclamation, and many 
other causes, all going to prove that the struggle would 
he a long and bloody one, utterly destroyed the una- 
nimity which had up to that time prevailed among all 
parties in regard to the necessity of its vigorous prose- 
cution. From that period till the close of the war the 
line which divided those who were lukewarm or indif- 
ferent, or wholly opposed to it, from those who felt 
that by military success alone, the difficulty could be 
solved, grew every day clearer and more distinct. This 
result, in the logic of events, was inevitable ; but hap- 
pily the remedy for the great evils which this division 
of sentiment involved was equally clear and obvious. 

It is a fundamental principle established by all his- 
torv, that war can be carried on for a lengthened 
period, and on a large scale by a free country only 
where the public opinion of that country is in the 
fullest sympathy with the objects of the war. Acting 
upon this obvious truth, Mr. Binney and his friends 
earnestly sought the best means of organizing public 
opinion in favor of the war in the most efficient man- 
ner,' so that it might speak in a tone so clear and 
decided as to leave no doubt how far the Government 
might count upon its support. There was, of course, 
danger that if the scheme was fully carried out it might 
alienate some of the timid and the doubtful ; but in 
times of revolution, earnest men do not stop at half 
measures, nor are they tolerant of differences of opinion. 
One of the sad necessities of such a time is that men 



I? 

will not hesitate to sacrifice their old associations, and 
even their dearest friends if their safety can be assured 
in no other way. Men whose government is assailed, 
whose homes are threatened with invasion, and whose 
property. is exposed to plunder, have not usually been 
thought guilty of social proscription because they felt 
a distrust of those of their countrymen who, not shar- 
ing.eithcr their opinions or their fears, were not disposed 
to aid them actively in their measures of resistance. 
There was nothing peculiar about the antagonism which 
broke up so many social relations among us during the 
war, unless it was that history may be searched in vain 
for an instance in which the course of the dominant 
party in a civil war towards those who did not sympa- 
thize with them was marked by as much forbearance as 
was shown here. 

In view, then, of the disaffection which prevailed in 
certain quarters, Mr. Binney and those who acted with 
him endeavored to arrest it by maintaining a public 
opinion which should not only be in sympathy with 
the Government, but which should stimulate it to 
employ all its resources in the prosecution of the war. 
In the methods they adopted to accomplish that end, 
they showed themselves inheritors of the true spirit of 
English liberty, and followed the safe line of English 
precedent. They knew that the nobles who extorted 
Magna Charta from King John, formed themselves 
into a " Confederacy ;" that the earnest men who threat- 
ened to avenge the assassination of Oueen Elizabeth 
by the death of the Pretender who hoped to gain the 
crown on that event, were bound together by a " Bond 
of Association;" that the patriots of the Long Parlia- 
ment entered into a " Covenant" to resist by force cf 



i8 

arms the tyranny of the King; that, in short, in every 
momentous crisis of English history, the true principles 
of the Constitution had been successfully vindicated, 
not by the ordinary and regular course of the govern- 
ment, but by the force of public opinion organized out- 
side of the Government, and acting irresistibly upon 
it, — they knew, I say, all this, they determined to 
accomplish a like end by the same means here. As, no 
partisan or selfish object was proposed, so no narrow 
or exclusive policy was adopted to attain it. As the 
danger of the country was the uppermost thought in 
every one's mind, the platform of the new organization 
was to be broad enough to hold all who from any 
motive were willing to aid the Government in suppres- 
sing the rebellion, which was the source of that danger. 
A few representative men were found, among whom 
Mr. Binney was one, who pledged themselves each to 
the other to give an unwavering support to the war until 
success crowned our efforts. Very soon afterwards, in 
December, 1862, many others joined with them and 
organized the Union League of Philadelphia, the 
object of which was avowed to be " to discountenance 
all disloyalty to the Federal Government, by moral 
and social means, and to acquiesce in its measures for 
the suppression of the rebellion." What the League 
did to accomplish these objects has passed into history, 
and need not be told by me here ; but it seems to me 
that this is a fitting occasion to recall the perfectly pure 
and patriotic motives of those with whom the move- 
ment originated. Mr. Binney was in a true sense one 
of the founders of this League. Its objects and its 
modes of accomplishing them had his most cordial 
sympathy; he worked hard to increase its numbers and 



to extend the sphere of Its usefuhiess, and he regarded 
it as the best means of giving to his love of country 
during the war practical shape and value. He had 
much to do at all times with directing its policy, he 
rejoiced in the wonderful efficiency and success of its 
measures, and if pride ever had a place in that humble 
heart, it was when he remembered that he had been one 
of its early sponsors, that from the beginning he was 
one of its Vice-presidents, and that he had been twice 
chosen to the honored position of its President. 

Mr. Binney's services during the war were not con- 
fined, as is well known, to a hearty support of the 
policy of the government. His active sympathy soon 
embraced those who were called upon to defend the 
country at the risk of their lives. He sought every 
opportunity to promote their health, comfort and 
efficiency. He helped to build up that great monu- 
ment of American civilization, the United States Sani- 
tary Commission, and he is entitled to a full share of 
whatever honor may be due to those who organized 
and carried on the grandest and most efficient system 
of voluntary relief to the sick and wounded of an army 
known in history since wars began on earth. 

He was elected on the thirtieth of July, 1861, by 
the gentlemen appointed by the President of the 
United States, a "commission of Inquiry and Advice 
in respect of the Sanitary Interests of the United 
States Forces," a member of that body. His duties 
in this position were all engrossing. To do properly 
the work which the Commission had undertaken to do, 
which was nothing less than an attempt to supplement 
by the full measure of popular sympathy the deficiencies 
of the government service in the care of the suffering 



20 



of the Army, required something more than mere 
devotion and zeal. If the whole project was not to 
end by increasing the very evils it sought to remedy, 
there was need of the utmost judgment, prudence and 
intelligence on the part of those who managed its 
affiiirs, in order to secure the harmonious co-operation 
of the army officials. In shaping and directing the 
policy of the Commission to this end, Mr. Binney 
was always conspicuous. On many occasions during 
its sessions in Washington, I was impressed with his 
sound and well-considered views, not merely in regard 
to the general objects of the Commission, but as to the 
best methods of securing them. His judgment was 
always so sure and calm, his counsel so wise and patri- 
otic, that he soon gained the fullest confidence of his 
colleagues, many of whom were among the foremost 
men in the country. 

But Mr. Binney's care for the sick and the suffering 
of the Army during the war, did not end with this 
general supervision of the means to be taken to im- 
prove their condition. One of the methods adopted 
by the Sanitary Commission to organize popular sym- 
pathy on the v/idest basis, was the establishment of 
branch or tributary associations in different parts of 
the country. In pursuance of this plan, Mr. Binney 
was instructed to organize, in December, 1861, such 
an association in this City. By his zeal and personal 
influence, he gathered round him many of our promi- 
nent citizens, who desireci to aid in this great scheme of 
Army relief Of this body, called the " Philadelphia 
Associates," Mr. Binney was Chairman during the war, 
and by means of its labors, more than a million and a 
half of dollars were contributed in aid of the purpos:s 



21 

for which the Commission was established. It is im- 
possible, it seems to me, to recall the vast proportions 
which this work assumed without admiration, wonder 
and gratitude. Under Mr. Binney's wise and earnest 
leadership, it collected vast supplies from the homes of 
the country, and distributed them to the suffering of 
the Army, it supplemented the needs of the Military 
Hospitals, local and general, — it was foremost in re- 
lieving the miseries of battle-fields ; it established a 
Hospital Directory, by means of which the condition 
of the suffering soldier, in any Military Hospital, 
might become speedily known to his friends, and it 
maintained a Bureau for the purpose of collecting the 
soldiers' claims on the government without charge to 
him. To carry on this great scheme, it secured large 
contributions from our citizens, and as its crowning 
work, it organized the Great Central Fair in 1864 — an 
enduring memorial, not merely of the patriotism and 
mercy of the people of Philadelphia, but also a won- 
derful proof of their perfect trust that their vast bene- 
factions would be wisely administered by Mr. Binney, 
and the gentlemen associated with him. 

It has sometimes been said that the war and its 
duties, brought into active exercise qualities in many 
men which had lain dormant all their lives, and of the 
existence of which they themselves had hardly been 
conscious. But in Mr. Binney's case, the war only 
afforded an opportunity for an exhibition on a wider 
sphere of virtues, which had been his essential charac- 
teristics through life. He had courage, for instance, — 
not mere coolness in the midst of danger, although he 
possessed that to an eminent degree, — but a much 
loftier quality, which the French call the courage of 



22 



one's opinions. His convictions were intensely strong, 
and when once formed, no power on earth would move 
him. Out of every conviction grew a duty, which 
soon brought forth fruit in an appropriate act. No 
one who knew Mr. Binney, could doubt his perfect 
readiness to maintain opinions so formed with the 
courage and constancy of a martyr. And yet there 
was at all times in him, such true modesty, and a man- 
ner so unassuming, and almost shrinking, that to many 
the real strength of his nature lay hidden. His large- 
ness of view, and his innate sense of courtesy, pre- 
served him from the slightest taint of arrogance when 
he differed from others. Certainly, no opinions were 
held by Mr. Binney more strongly or clearly, than 
those concerning the nature and the functions of the 
Church, and yet I have seen him in the most intimate 
personal relations with representatives of almost every 
type of thought on this subject except his own, at all 
times most zealously co-operating with them in the 
performance of duties demanded by a common Chris- 
tianity, 

As Mr. Binney was earnest and constant in his de- 
votion to any cause the success of which he had at 
heart, so he was enthusiastic in his attachment to those 
whom he honored with his friendship. This is a trait 
of his character which I think is little understood. 
Few suspected what a fount of generous affection 
and tenderness lay hidden under that quiet and im- 
passive exterior. When he once trusted a man he 
seemed to give himself up wholly to him. The only 
instances which I can recall in which his usually calm 
judgment was disturbed arose from this intense desire 
to serve his friends. On one occasion I had urged him 



23 

to support for an important position a gentleman in 
whose success I felt a deep interest. After listening 
patiently to what I had to say, he suddenly exclaimed : 
"Do not press me, do you know thai Dr. (the op- 
posing candidate) once saved my life?'' Then again he 
was led to feel that one of his friends had done some 
service to the country by his writings at a critical period 
of the war. From that hour his heart warmed towards 
that friend : he gave him his fullest confidence, he 
spoke in the most unmeasured terms of the value of 
his services, and whatever influence he could command, 
was thenceforth exerted to secure for him posts of trust 
and honor. "I happened," writes one of Mr. Bin- 
ney's oldest friends to me, " to be with him at Sharps- 
burgh a day or two after the battle of Antietam, and 
just after a force thrown across the Potomac had been 
surprised and driven back with some loss. The Penn- 
sylvania regiment to which Mr. Binney's oldest son 
was then attached had formed part of this force, and 
had suffered heavily. Of course it took us a long 
time to get any trustworthy intelligence about the par- 
ticulars, and while we were making our inquiries and 
receiving all manner of unsatisfactory and contradic- 
tory answers, Mr. Binney maintained his composure 
most resolutely. But when we ascertained at last from 
a seargeant or corporal of the regiment that Captain 
Binney (I think he was then Captain) was safe and well, 
and had just moved off with his company, that he had 
behaved with distinguished courage and ability, that he 
had been one of the last to leave the ground, and that 
his men were full of praises of his conduct, then, I shall 
never forget how completely and thoroughly Mr. Bin- 
ney broke down." And this is the man, with a heart 



24 

as simple as a child's, and as tender as a woman's, who 
was thought cold and formal by those who did not 
know him. 

Mr. Binney never fully recovered from the effects of 
an Illness through which he passed about ten years ago. 
Within a few weeks of his death, a disease of the heart 
was rapidly developed, and he was snatched away from 
his family and friends with startling suddenness, on the 
third of February, 1870. He left a widow, the daughter 
of the late William Johnson, Esquire, of New York, 
the eminent Reporter, and the intimate friend of Chan- 
cellor Kent, and seven children. 

His life seems to me to have been in its symmetrical 
beauty almost an ideal one. It was nurtured and 
strengthened by the two great principles out of which 
all true excellence springs. Trust in God and Devotion 
to Duty : 

" Thus it flowed 
From its mysterious urn a sacred stream, 
In whose calm depths the beautiful and pure 
Alone are mirror'd ; which, though shapes of ill 
May hover round its surface, glides in light, 
And takes no shadow from them." 



89 W 








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